BRICS Adopts New Delhi Declaration to Bridge the Gap Between Pledges and Action

JAKARTA, Investortrust.id — Member nations of the expanded BRICS bloc have officially adopted the landmark New Delhi Declaration, anchoring their strategic partnership around concrete execution to reinforce the role of the Global South in directing global governance.

The consensus document was endorsed during the 18th BRICS Summit held at the Bharat Mandapam convention complex in New Delhi, India, on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026. The summit convened under the central banner: “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed that rapid realignments across the international landscape require sweeping transformations of legacy international institutions, particularly regarding their representation, agility, and fundamental rules of engagement.

According to Modi, the expanding diplomatic and demographic weight of BRICS must be harnessed to narrow the persistent structural divide between official summit pledges and actual implementation on the ground.

"We must work through partnership and collective action to bridge the gap between commitment and outcomes," Modi told attending leaders on Saturday. "The New Delhi Declaration adopted today provides a clear direction for our collective resolve. It is now our shared responsibility to translate these commitments into real results."

Representing nearly half the world’s population and over a quarter of international commerce, the expanded 11-member BRICS alliance commands the critical mass required to reshape global economic architecture. By codifying practical mechanisms across trade settlements, infrastructure financing, and cross-border digital frameworks into the New Delhi Declaration, the bloc is moving beyond symbolic communiqués toward direct operational coordination outside traditional Western institutions.

Prabowo Backs Collective Leverage for the Global South

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto aligned strongly with the call for tangible results, underscoring that the bloc's collective momentum must generate practical economic opportunities while granting developing nations sovereign autonomy over their development paths.

"This is the precise type of collective strength we require—strength that does not stall on paper, but translates directly into real opportunities for our citizens," Prabowo said during his address on Saturday. "A strength that empowers the Global South with a stronger voice to shape its own destiny."

The Indonesian head of state emphasized that coordinated unity must be actively deployed to dismantle entrenched international disparities and ensure emerging-market interests are factored into multilateral decisions.

"That same collective leverage must be directed toward constructing a fairer, more balanced international order," Prabowo added. "Standing together, we can ensure our influence is decisively accounted for."

Sweeping Mandates for Multilateral and Trade Overhauls

The 140-point declaration lays out a roadmap targeting long-standing structural grievances held by emerging markets and developing countries (EMDCs).

Marking the 20th anniversary of the BRICS formation, the declaration calls for deep-seated reforms to the United Nations, explicitly demanding increased permanent and non-permanent developing-nation representation on the UN Security Council. It specifically highlights the aspirations of Brazil and India for enhanced roles, supported by permanent members China and Russia.

In the financial sphere, the declaration demands an overhaul of the Bretton Woods institutions—the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank—to ensure voting power and quota distributions reflect contemporary global economic contributions rather than post-war alignments. The leaders urged the rapid implementation of the 16th General Review of Quotas (GRQ) and equitable realignment under the 17th GRQ without penalizing developing nations.

Addressing mounting trade frictions, the bloc condemned the proliferation of unilateral coercive actions, unlawful sanctions, and protectionist tariff policies masquerading as environmental regulations.

To restore predictability to the global marketplace, the declaration called for the immediate revival of a fully functioning, two-tier dispute settlement mechanism at the World Trade Organization (WTO), alongside the prompt appointment of new Appellate Body members. The leaders also threw their full backing behind the WTO accession bids of fellow full members Ethiopia and Iran.

On the financial front, the grouping urged the BRICS Payment Task Force (BPTF) to advance cross-border settlement interoperability while expanding bilateral trade and investment conducted in national local currencies. In parallel, the declaration pressed for fast-tracking the operational footprint and local-currency lending mechanisms of the New Development Bank (NDB) as it enters its second decade of operations.

Looking ahead, member states expressed full backing for China as it prepares to assume the rotating BRICS Chairship in 2027 to host the XIX BRICS Summit.